How Much Is Too Much For The Oilers To Pay Leon Draisaitl?

With most of the major moves being done already this offseason there is still one thing that the Edmonton Oilers fans are patiently awaiting and that is the contract extension of the Oilers second best player, Leon Draisaitl. While deep down I know that he will re-sign with the Oilers, till he does the thought will be in the back of my mind that he might not.

When it comes to the contract there is really only two variables in the contract itself. One is the term of the contract, that is how long will Draisaitl be getting paid for. The other variable is amount of the contract, this is how much Draisaitl will be getting paid during the term of the deal. While the two are connected in a way the sticking point in this negotiation is likely to be the amount of money Leon is going to be getting.

How Much Is Too Much When It Comes To The Amount?

When it comes to the term of the deal, I think the Oilers are going to go as long as they can, so don't be surprised if a 7 or 8 year deal is signed at the end of the day. For the amount though, there is a cap that the Oilers do not want to go over, but what is that amount.

If you take a look at the most recent large money contract of Austin Matthews, he got a $13.25 million a year for 4 years. While Matthews does score more goals than Draisaitl, Leon does put up quite a bit more points than Matthews does. Is that extra number of points enough to push Draisaitl's earnings to be more than Matthews.

I personally think it does, which causes a problem for the Edmonton Oilers. After the Leon Draisaitl deal gets done the next year they will work on the Connor McDavid contract, a contract that will be the most expensive one in the NHL, as it should be. With that in mind the Oilers need to have a max that they can pay Draisaitl.

In my opinion the Edmonton Oilers shouldn't go over $14 million for Draisaitl. Now that being said if Draisaitl wants to have a competitive team moving forward he will not want to handcuff them by costing them too much. So, from both sides of this contract neither of them should want to push the money over $14 million.

Hopefully, this contract negotiation doesn't grind out too long. The longer this goes the more nervous all of the fans of the Edmonton Oilers will get. For Stan Bowman, you do not want to get this fan base madder at you than they already are, so get this done and move on.